The loneliness epidemic needs its own philanthropic movement
More than half of U.S. adults are at risk of social disconnection. Fragmented giving won't solve this crisis.
By Aaron Hurst
Contributor
September 14, 2026 | Read Time: 5 minutes
- Past generations rallied philanthropy around defining causes like environmental protection and veterans support. Social connection deserves the same treatment.
- Structural shifts in how Americans work, socialize, and spend their time are quietly reshaping health, civic life, and democracy itself.
- A handful of funders are stepping up, but the infrastructure needed to treat social connection as a true field is still missing.
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Every generation defines its priorities through the causes it chooses to invest in. In the early 1990s, the previously fragmented environmental movement became recognized as a unified cause — one that philanthropy helped name, fund, and organize. That shift not only raised awareness but created new institutions, public policy, and resources. Protecting the environment moved from a niche concern to a societal responsibility.
Similarly, after 9/11, a national call to service helped catalyze a sustained commitment to supporting veterans and first responders. Billions of dollars in philanthropic and charitable giving flowed toward relief efforts, victims’ families, and long-term support systems, alongside the creation of new institutions.
Today we are at an inflection point for another entrenched societal problem: the social connection crisis. For several years researchers have raised alarms about a pervasive loneliness epidemic across all age groups. A survey earlier this year by the US Chamber of Connection, the organization Aaron leads, found that more than half of U.S. adults are at risk or vulnerable when it comes to social connection. And yet, unlike other defining issues of past decades, social connection has not been funded or organized as a cause for action.
Lack of social connection manifests in various ways. Fewer than half of adults report having a neighbor they can rely on in an emergency. Nearly 70 percent say they never participate in clubs or organizations. Trust in institutions, most notably the federal government, is at an unprecedented low, while shifting economic pressures and new technologies have eroded many of the shared routines and third spaces where connection once formed organically.
Compared with just a decade ago, Americans are more likely to work remotely, stream entertainment alone, and use fitness apps instead of going to the gym or local community center. Now AI chatbots may be eroding basic relationship skills — a phenomenon psychologists have recently identified as “deskilling.”
These structural transformations not only increase social isolation, but they also affect everything from people’s health to volunteer opportunities to their ability to make connections that lead to better jobs. The lack of social connection shapes the very fabric of people’s lives and drives the polarization that harms communities, cultural institutions, and the government.
In response, some philanthropies are devoting more attention and dollars to combatting social isolation. The Einhorn Collaborative’s Call to Connection initiative, for example, elevates connection as a public issue through research, storytelling, and coalition-building. The Barnes Family Foundation’s Social Weather project is gathering data and building tools to improve community well-being. And Stand Together works to strengthen civic participation and community life by investing in mentors such as coaches and teachers.
A more expansive approach
This is all valuable work, but such efforts need to be widely integrated across civic life, workplaces, schools, and philanthropy to have the impact of past societal movements. That reality inspired the launch of the US Chamber of Connection, which is helping to create a national infrastructure for social connection through city level Connection Councils consisting of leaders from business, government, nonprofits, and cultural institutions. Seattle’s Connection Council, for instance, coordinates resources to support people during life transitions, such as losing a job, becoming a parent, or moving to a new town, when loneliness can be a particular challenge. Additional councils are launching this fall in San Francisco, San Diego, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.
But for these efforts to work at scale, philanthropy must commit to developing social connection as a field alongside education, health, the environment, and others. That will require adopting it as a defined funding area — with the necessary philanthropic infrastructure. Right now, for example, neither the IRS nonprofit classification system nor the federal budget has a category for social connection. The only thing close is “social and recreational clubs,” which leaves out all the organizations that focus on research and advocacy around social connection. As a result, such work is often overlooked when considering where to allocate dollars.
A massive commitment
To understand what an effective funding commitment would entail, consider the example of Points of Light, the national nonprofit that mobilizes people to volunteer in their communities. The organization recently published its 10-year plan to double the number of volunteers in the country to 150 million people. The estimated cost: $100 million. Another organization, PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support) would need an estimated $5 billion a year to provide support groups for parents of the more than 3 million babies born in the United States each year.
Significant investment will also be needed to transform existing institutions, such as libraries, parks, and museums, into more intentional centers of social connection. For example, Seattle’s National Nordic Museum recently began offering a co-working space and hosting social club fairs as part of a larger strategy to encourage greater social connection.
Grassroots investments in small-scale community efforts, such as those provided by the Workday Foundation’s Human Connection Microgrant Program, are critical. The foundation offers grants of up to $10,000 for projects that bring people together, including community potlucks, seasonal celebrations, local game nights, and intergenerational connection programs. Such investments support civic innovators and community builders who are active at the neighborhood level but typically have to bootstrap their own work.
Social connection can no longer be left purely to chance. So much of what ails the nation is rooted in a lack of connection to our neighbors, colleagues, and larger communities. The problem is widely recognized, the early models exist, and the need is growing. Now philanthropy must decide whether it will take the lead in addressing the problem — and rebuilding the opportunities for connection on which a healthy, functioning democracy depends.
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